Once again, the president of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, has called for a
parliamentary election - the third in as many years - in an attempt to
resolve his never-ending political struggle with his two main rivals,
Yulia Tymoshenko and Viktor Yanukovich, the current and former prime
ministers.

We sympathize with Yushchenko and his vision of anchoring Ukraine
economically and politically in the West. And if new elections help clear
up the political mess in Ukraine, well and good. The main thing is to make
sure these are elections by and for Ukraine, without meddling from Russia,
or the West.

Yushchenko and Tymoshenko were favorites of the West in the 2004 "Orange
Revolution." Thousands of Ukrainians went into the streets to overturn the
rigged election of Yanukovich, backed blatantly by Russia, as president.
But the "Orange" allies soon fell out. Yanukovich was soon back in the
Parliament and, for a spell, Yushchenko's prime minister.

In all that time, the three rivals have dismally failed to find a way to
share power, seriously hampering Ukraine's development. Part of the
problem is the division of Ukraine itself, with Yushenko supported in the
European-looking west of the country, Yanukovich in the Russia-leaning
east, and Tymoshenko moving back and forth.

The divisions are not going away anytime soon. And they will not be helped
by any new meddling from Russia or the United States. After the nasty war
in northern Georgia in August, both East and West should have no illusion
about the danger of a conflict in the far larger and far better-armed
Ukraine. The only way to avoid that, and to move toward political
stability, is to leave the Ukrainians to sort out their own identities and
prospects.

We still believe that Ukraine's future is with the West. But we don't
believe that its Westward journey will be helped by pressures to join NATO
so long as a sizeable portion of Ukrainians are against it.

At the same time, all three major political contenders have already
declared their support for joining the European Union, which at this stage
seems to be the best and most promising route for Ukraine.

Supporting the Ukrainians in this endeavor while staying out of their
internal politics seems like the best support the EU and the U.S. could
show for this young country.